Tampa, Florida-based band Set It Off is a pop punk outfit that was formed in 2008. After dropping three well-received EPs, the five-piece band was signed to Equal Vision Records, who re-released the 2011 EPHorrible Kids. Set It Off went on to release its debut studio albumCinematics, in 2012, solidifying itself as a standout act among the pop punk genre with alternative orchestral sounds.

The Grand Rapids, Michigan-based post-hardcore band La Dispute has managed to create a fairly respectable reputation for itself within the emo/screamo scene since forming in 2004. Making a style of music that blends repetitive guitar chugs with dutifully aggravated vocals with lyrics about adolescent yearning and youthful malcontent, La Dispute has become a popular group with individuals who are looking for a band that makes a style of music they can relate to. Though the band has experienced a few lineup changes over the years, it has nevertheless done a fairly admirable job of cranking out a prodigious number of studio albums and EPs.

It is rare to find a songwriter with the hyper-literate sensibility and emotive voice of The Decemberists’ Colin Meloy. From “The Mariner’s Revenge Song,” which clocks in at nearly ten minutes and tells the story of a young mariner stuck in a whale with the man who wronged his late mother, to The Hazards of Love, a full-length indie folk rock opera of enchantments, transformation and forbidden love, the Portland-based group's music oftentimes reads like a bit from a novel framed behind a wall of exquisite, accordion-tinged sound. Whether dark and murderous, triumphant and whimsical or tender and lovesick, The Decemberists always create thought-provoking music.